Voters in Georgia are going to the polls on Tuesday after two months of fierce fighting for the closely watched Senate by-elections on January 6. The result will decide which party owns the majority in the Senate, and thus determine how effective Elected President Joe Biden will be able to implement its legislative agenda.
Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face well-funded Democratic opponents, Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock. Georgia was a critical condition in the presidential election and was nailed down by Mr. Biden won, a result that was repeatedly confirmed by an initial score and two additional scores.
President Trump has dragged the state into his fruitless attempt to overthrow the election results with unfounded claims of fraud. In a phone call with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger On Saturday, the audio of which was obtained by CBS News, Mr. Trump is trying to pressure Raffesnperger to “find” more than 11,000 votes so he can win the state.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” can be heard from Mr. Trump on the audio recording. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you recalculated.”
Partisan parties on both sides hope that Mr. Biden’s unexpected victory will motivate voters to turn in the sensational run – off, which has already broken the turnout records.
The balance of the Senate is currently 50 Republicans versus 48 Democrats. Should Ossoff and Warnock win their races, the Democrats would have a razor-sharp 50-50 majority, with elected Vice President Kamala Harris not tied. This would give Democrats control of the House, Senate and White House, meaning Biden’s priorities could be more easily implemented by a cooperating Congress.
Tuesday is the second time that Perdue and Loeffler will play against Ossoff and Warnock. Perdue, who was re-elected, could not reach the 50% threshold on November 3 that would allow him to avoid a run-off. Loeffler, who was appointed to fill a seat vacated by Senator Johnny Isakson in 2019, was challenged in the special election by 20 other candidates. Although Warnock won the majority of votes on November 3, no candidate won a majority, which also led to a run-off.
Millions of Georgians voted early or absent before the presidential election, and many also chose to do so before the run-off. More than 3 million Georgians voted at the end of the early vote. According to Georgia’s foreign minister, two million of the votes are early personal votes and nearly one million ballots. Data analyzed by Georgia Votes show that more than 115,000 people voted early in the run-up to the election who did not vote in November.
The Democratic candidates have a fundraising advantage after a massive, record track record in the third quarter. In a document released on December 24, the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns revealed that they each received more than $ 100 million between mid-October and mid-December. Republicans, however, receive significant help from outside groups in January.
However, it is unclear whether campaign dollars will translate to votes. Many Democratic Senate candidates outraged their opponents last year, but Democrats turned down only two Senate seats.
And despite the Democratic fundraising benefit, Republicans and their allies spent Democrats in advertising. GOP candidates and third-party groups spent $ 279 million, while Democratic candidates and groups spent $ 234 million, according to Kantar / CMAG data.
Both and Trump are expected to travel to Georgia on January 5 to support their candidates. Loeffler and Perdue are now closely associated with Mr. Trump, who refuses to admit he lost the election.
Perdue was forced into the last stretch of the campaign. He said on December 31 that he was going into quarantine after coming into close contact with someone from the campaign who tested positive according to COVID-19. Perdue and his wife tested negative on New Year’s Eve, but were quarantined on the advice of his doctor and according to CDC guidelines.
Republican senators had to navigate a fine line between acknowledging some issues with the November election, but still persuading Republicans to turn up to vote in the run-up.
“If you’re angry for November, you have to fight. Fight with us,” Perdue told a crowd in Henry County last week. “(President Trump)’s upcoming Monday night for one reason: to remind people no matter what you think of November, we need to keep the queue to protect everything we’ve achieved over the past four years.”
The Republican candidates drafted their campaigns as a last line of defense against Democrats who instituted their policies, often labeling them as ‘radical’ and ‘socialism’.
“We are the firewall to stop socialism, we have to keep the line here in Georgia, the country is counting on us,” Loeffler told a crowd in the Atlanta subway on New Year’s Eve. “I know you feel the pressure. The pressure is on. ‘
Republicans who support Loeffler and Perude have reiterated concerns about the Democratic agenda.
“The things they can push through are destructive to our freedom as Americans,” Pat Quigley, 80, said after hearing Loeffler speak.
Later that day, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina came to Georgia to fight for the Republicans and set out the GOP’s plan if they were to win at least one of the races.
“We saw an opportunity here within a few days to make sure that the most radical agenda in American politics dies in the U.S. Senate. That anything that comes out of Pelosi’s house comes to the Senate and kills us,” Graham told the crowd in Gainesville.
The Democratic candidates have made an equally urgent pitch and warned that all the policies they want to implement, from COVID relief to health care, the economy and the reform of criminal justice, are in jeopardy if they lose just one of the races.
“If Mitch McConnell retains control of the U.S. Senate, he will try to do to Joe and Kamala exactly as he tried to do to President Obama,” Ossoff said during a rally with Warnock in DeKalb County last week. “They will block the COVID relief we need. They will block the minimum wage of $ 15 that we as Americans earn. They will block the debt relief for students that young people in this country are asking for.”
“You need Senators from the United States who are focused on the people and not on themselves,” Warnock told the crowd during the drive-in rally.
Ossoff followed Perdue by more than 80,000 votes in November, but told CBSN’s Lana Zak on Sunday that he believes the Democrats have ‘kinetic energy’. He insisted he would not be a ‘partisan soldier’, but said Democrats should investigate the power of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.